Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds

With the advent of very powerful PCs and high-end graphics cards, there has been an incredible development in Virtual Worlds, real-time computer animation and simulation, games. But at the same time, new and cheaper Virtual Reality devices have appeared allowing an interaction with these real-time Virtual Worlds and even with real worlds through Augmented Reality. Three-dimensional characters, especially Virtual Humans are now of an exceptional quality, which allows to use them in the movie industry. But this is only a beginning, as with the development of Artificial Intelligence and Agent technology, these characters will become more and more autonomous and even intelligent. They will inhabit the Virtual Worlds in a Virtual Life together with animals and plants.

(Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of California, Davis, have built an algorithm designed to create a computer-generated animation of piano-playing, showing finger placement and wrist motions. The novel part of ...